Personal Memories of prisoners of war in Devizes and its surrounding villages, Wiltshire in the second world war and afterwards
Below are articles and photos about;
The Memories
Doug Pottington was born in Chirton in 1938 and has lived in nearby Marden for the past 46 years with his wife Mary - a local historian. Mary has amassed an impressive set of albums on local history, including the Richards of Avalon, Devizes and memories of the Italian and German POW camp at Patney.
There were Germans at the Patney camp including Hans Bittner (see the story of Yvonne Trevorow below ) and Emil Fleming. Emil was was from eastern Germany near the Polish border. He stayed on in England after the war and married a local girl Mildred.
The two photos below show Emil Fleming with a 15 year old Doug Pottinger in about 1953 left and at a dance in Marden Mill in the 1950s right. Mildred and Emil are 4th and 5th from the right at the back of the photo.Emil died around 2005, but Mildred lives on.
Below is a charming photograph of a group of Italian POW who sent this group photograph, with a thank you letter, back from Italy to their friends who had been kind tothem whilst at the Patney camp. Mary Pottinger has some letters from the POW too at Christmas time when they were invited to lunch. Many were working on a daily basis at various farms in the Marden, Patney and Chirton area. One was attached to the Marden Mill. The photo is dated December 22nd, 1945.
Yvonne Trevorrow married a German POW Hans Bittner in 1949. Yvonne was born in 1931. Her mother ran Hillier’s sweet shop on New Park Street until the 1960s; it has now been demolished. Her father was a Sergeant Major in the Royal Artillery based in a camp opposite the Le Marchant Barracks.
She remembers the large columns of German POW tramping along New Park Street mainly at night as they were marched from the Railway station, down New Park Street to the POW camp on London road. The tramp tramp of their marching feet was a regular feature of the late war. She remembers that on several occasion s they were marched down Quakers Walk to avoid people altogether. They were badly dressed and many just had sacking rags on their feet. They had an unpleasant smell, which was always the same; it may have been delousing solution. Once there was an altercation on New Park Street as German Officers refused to get into jeeps as they wanted to walk with their men.
Right a young Yvonne Trevorrow in about 1947; she worked on a farm in Marston. There were German POW working there, but not her husband to be.Yvonne remembers going to the Garrison Theatre in the camp opposite le Marchant Barracks on Friday nights. She saw Gracie Fields and big Bill Campbell – a singer there. It had a stage and proper curtains and was a big war time entertainment venue. Her mother volunteered at the “Donut Café” which was US Nissan hut used to serve coffee and donuts. It was situated on the Green behind where the public toilets are now. It was the first time many had seen these cakes with a hole in it. She went to Christmas party there and an American soldier gave her a scented bar of Lux toilet soap which was a special treat in the War. Yvonne also recalls that there were Italian POW interned in Devizes castle. "They wore brown uniforms and I remember groups of them singing on the battlements - I watched them from the railway bridge near St. John's Church."
The POWs were still present in Devizes after the war until they were compulsorily repatriated in 1947/8. One incident stays in her mind. A German POW Erwin Brandt some how regularly cycled to her mother’s shop and asked for sweets. He had no money, but her mother gave him sweets anyway. Before he was repatriated he gave Yvonne a photo and asked her not to forget him. The sweets were important too him but the attraction lay elsewhere and a young Yvonne was frightened of him.
Yvonne wanted to join the Women's Land Army when she left school but she was too young. She got her wish though when a farmer in Marston agreed that she could work on his farm. She cycled daily 7 miles there and back. German POWswere on the farm and she remembers them eating thick slices of bread with some sort of milk product on it, which did not taste particularly nice. A prisoner told her that the English treated them well but fed them poorly, whereas the Americans treated them poorly and fed them well!
Yvonne used the Devizes swimming pool a lot and helped with its cleaning. In 1947 she met a German POW Hans Bittner at the pool. They met regularly as they were swimming. They started going out and fell in love. Hans was older than Yvonne and was an interpreter at a small POW camp in Patney. See this link for a 2010 story about German POWs in Patney.
Cycling 14 miles a day and working on the farm tired a young Yvonne. She transferred to a farm near Connock which had the advantage of being near Patney. She used to meet Hans in the POW camp - it was open - and she remembers them serving coffee and apfel strudel.
In 1947/8 all German POWs were forcibly repatriated back to Germany. Hans Bittner was sent back to Boos, Bavaria. They wrote to each other every week. Hans was determined to come back to England and marry Yvonne.
They lived with Mrs Trevorrow for over a year until their first child was born. when then obtained a flat in Eastleigh Road. A second child was born there.Hans Bittner had to report to the Police every week initially. He found work difficult to get but he did gain a job in the kitchens of Roundway Mental Hospital. Hans and Yvonne were very happy together. They had three children between 1951 and 1953 and later 2 more; 3 daughters and 2 sons. Later they moved to Hillworth Road where they brought up their growing family.
Eventually Hans gained a better job at Westonhouse in Chippenham. He taught German to night school students in Devizes. Yvonne and Hans were involved in the Devizes Waiblinginen exchanges which started in the 1960s. They very many happy times both in Germany and Devizes.
Below twinning exchange in Germany in the late 1960s. Yvonne and Hans are 3rd and 4th from the right.
Hans Bittner died of stomach cancer in 1977, after a 4 year illness, aged just 52. Yvonne later remarried and now as Mrs Harvey she continues to live in Devizes. She has eight grandchildren. and five great grandchildren. She returns to Germany regularly to see Hans's' nephews and their children where she feels very welcome.
Mrs Harvey also remembers a story about John Knott, who had been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War 2. He suffered badly at the hand of the Japanese, he was a tall, big man, but he came back thin and very gaunt. He iwas an amiable man and he invited two German POWs to his home for Christmas dinner after the war. He ran a shop in the Brittox. Some of his friends asked him why he had done this. He apparently said that he had a miserable time as a POW and if anyone had invited him for a home cooked meal during the war he would have been delighted.
And so some good things come from war.
Elizabeth Kington has written to Devizes Heritage
I was a member of the Jones family and we lived in the old Sheep Street. We all played in the Salvation Army Band. Mr Jesse Underwood was the conductor; he used to have a radio shop in Sidmouth Street. As a 12 year old I was fortunate to be playing in the Salvation Army Band in Devizes. We were asked to go to the American Hospital which was in one of the camps on London Road to play Christmas Carols to the wounded servicemen. I remember going to one of the wards where we played and there was no applause and the American in charge of the ward said, "Please don’t think that lack of applause is lack of appreciation, but there is not one of the lads in this ward that has two hands to be able to applaud you but they do appreciate your music. What an experience for a 12 year old". 
After playing to the Americans our Band Master, Mr Jesse Underwood said, as we came out of that camp which was the opposite side of the road to the German prisoner of war camp, lets play to the prisoners who were stood at the fence listening, so we played a couple of carols and finished with Holy Night and those listening sang to our music. It was a great experience for me. Right is the cover of a diary of a POW in camp 23 Devizes. This has been purchased by the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes. The drawing is charming and informative. The identity of the soldier, who wrote the exquisitely illustrated diary in Le Marchant Camp Camp 23 on London Road between 1944 and 1946, is not known.The diary is 56 pages long and written in rhyming German dialect. It contains humorous accounts of life in the camp, including the terrible food and how cigarettes were used as currency. A translation of the words on the cover is "From the Diary of a Prisoner of War Daily Routine in Camp 23/A1 Devizes (England). Now comrades pay attention:I will describe your daily routine,simply, plainly andclearly I will give an account of us POWs. Actually, I do not want to write poetry,so much as to record everything accurately;a clear account so that you always remember what life was like behind barbed wire. And should I leave anything out feel free to make any additions yourselves." translation coutresy of Marlis Rawlins.
Keith Genever was born in Devizes in 1940; he remembers "being taken up to the camp on Ferozeshah Road and talking to the Italian and German prisoners through the wire and giving them biscuits. I talked to the Polish guards too. Trusty prisoners were let out into the town on supervision and one year two came to my house for Christmas lunch; this was quite a widespread thing in Devizes"Keith's father told him later that the German had said to him that they were forced to fight for Hitler as their families were threatened.
Marianne Baker tells the story in "How Devizes won the War!" that Italian POW came to work on her father's farm in Potterne Wicke.They cleared out a stream and remade a farm track from the road to the rail line. In their spare time they made withy baskets and slippers from rushes. They apparently sold these for pocket money.
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Yvonne's father was stationed in Kiel in Northern Germany. In the summer of 1948 Yvonne and her mother went to visit him for 3 weeks. Hans Bittnercame up to Kiel from Bavaria and stayed with them for 3 days. He met St. Major Trevorrow who was not initially keen for his daughter to marry a German. However after they got to know each other he was won over to the idea of marriage. It took a year and a lot of paper work to get permission to allow Hans to come back to Devizes from war wrecked Germany. By 1949 he had permission to return provided that he married his English friend within 6 months. They were married at St. Mary’s Church on New Park Street in February 1950 right, Mr. Ruddle is the sides man at the door. Yvonne was just 19.
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